Magic in a glass of fruit juice

I was vacationing in the United States with my family in 1999 when we chanced upon a fast-food chain called Jamba Juice; it specialized in freshly blended fruit juices and smoothies, and was just in its third or fourth year but already quite popular. We got to thinking that since the Philippines was a fruit-lover’s paradise, we could succeed in putting up a store with a similar concept there.

At the time, Fruit Magic had been in business in the Philippines for about six years but wasn’t doing well, and when the owner, a family friend, asked us if we were interested in taking over, I said yes right away. To think we were about to become competitors.

When I took over, I went to the United States to take a crash course in juicing, and when I came back, I changed the store’s original concept–from one where customers chose which fruits to combine to one where they simply chose from a list of fruit combinations. I did it to cut down on waiting time–customers usually take a long time deciding which fruits to blend–and to make sure the combination was healthy and guaranteed to taste good.

The early years were difficult. I concentrated more on product research and development and ignored marketing, and was putting up stores right and left and just as quickly closing them down. This was because I believed that if you had a good product, a nice store, and good customer service, then customers would naturally follow–but in the Philippine setting you needed more push than that. Even if you had a good product, the competition would always be there and customers would sometimes prefer the competition even if its products were less superior. So I started working on achieving a balance in all aspects of operations. And once we achieved that balance, we started growing.

We’re expanding at the rate of one store per month. The business is doing well because more and more Filipinos are now learning to eat and drink healthy. Before, some customers would always ask why they should buy a fruit shake for P25 or P30 when a bottle of soft drink would cost them just P8, but now they’re more discerning about what’s healthy and natural and what’s not.

We recently expanded our product line to include soya, and the response has been tremendous. I felt that since we were in the health business, we had to come up with a product that would compliment our fruits and juices, and the best thing we did with our soya was to extend its shelf life. The shelf of chilled soya is three to four days, but we were able to extend that up to six months through research.

We now plan to reach a wider market. We recently set up a stall at the Centennial Airport, and business has been great. The concessionaire told me that it was one of the best decisions he had ever made because it turned out that many foreigners had been asking for a store like mine since last year.

They were looking for natural fruit juices, and now they have it. Fruit Magic gave them what they wanted. –Interview by Jaclyn Lutanco-Chua

Fruit Magic

Telephones: (02) 364-6927; (02) 364-3621
Telefax: (02) 366-2934
E-mail: [email protected]